Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Do you leave your sub on?

I have an EP 350 v1. It's large, heavy and puts out some killer sound. I leave it on all the time. Is that thing running up my utility bill even though I'm not listening to it?

Does anyone else leave their sub on all the time?

I have an EP 350 v3. I just turn it on and off as I need it. I feel that leaving it on will eventually wear out components earlier than necessary. Whether this is the case, or not, I don't know.

I leave mine on "auto." Then again, mine is behind my screen wall, so it isn't real convenient to turn it on and off.

It isn't like being in "auto" mode is using full power or anything. It IS "leaching" a little bit of juice to keep just enough electronics on to detect a signal and to light up the little LED, but that it is. It isn't like leaving an EP350 on all of the time is sucking up 300 watts of power when idle.

I wonder how much power is used though when the sub is in the "sleep mode" part of the auto-on setting? I actually have a little box that I can plug into the wall to check all sorts of electricity things, but just need to do it some time when my curiosity is greater than my laziness to do it.

all my subs come on when they sense the incoming signal, prior to that I left them on.

Ep350's only have 2 modes. On and off. There's no auto.

For me it's more about component preservation, not minuscule electricity savings.

There was a short time when the EP350s had auto.
If you have a v1, that's probably an AB amp, which means it is using a not-insignificant amount of power when it's turned on. That said, the best way to find out how much is to get a kill-a-watt meter and plug the sub into that. Then you'll know.

Actually, leaving it on will allow the components last longer. This is primarily due to less heat cycles. Heat cycles is what kills solder joints. In the Navy we left the electronics on all of the time. So, on the sub i was on.. Most of the electronics were close to 20 years old....

This is why I'm back and forth on this. I've historically left my subs on, but when I was also leaving my main amp on, a part decided to go wonky (can't remember what they said it was), but when I told them I was leaving it on 24/7, they said that was a bad idea, and I should be turning it off when not in use. I remember this conversation coming up before, so I explained why I'd been leaving it on, but they still suggested turning it off. Since I use my system every day, that is a lot of cycling of power. I've been turning it off every night since then, but I'm still not sure what's worse for longevity.

I think if you've got good cooling on your electronics (and/or they've got good cooling themselves), then there's no question that leaving them on will make them last longer. The question is, do you feel lucky, punk? how good is the cooling in your AV cabinet/closet/stack?

I'll make sure to have really good cooling when I have all of my equipment in a closet, but for now, I don't have dedicated airflow. However, the equipment is spread out with plenty of open air around each unit. Like around 10 inches above both the receiver and main amp, with no other equipment below, and the shelving is open on all sides.

I keep my electronics in a closet with the 2 sliding doors open only an inch on both sides. Keeps the little wire muncher out. I'd like to install a couple of cooling fans in the doors. Not sure what to buy, or where to plug it in at. Would be nice if toggled on/off with receiver.

Here's one option. A fan that looks easy to install with power source and will go on and off at pre-determined settings. But may not work well with my closet door because of the 2 sliding doors. They are fit up next to each other.

When I use my EP500 every day, I just leave it on. But when I know I won't be using it for more than a few days, I turn it off. For me that's generally on during the weekends, and off during the work-week.

I used to always leave it on, but then one night when my wife was out of town, I heard a low thump from somewhere in the house. It was like a heartbeat. After nearly pissing myself, I discovered that it was my sub. The really low-end sound was thumping very, very slowly. It went away when I turned it off and a tech told me that I just needed to unplug the EP500 for about 8 hours to dissipate a charge that had built up in the unit. Now I make sure to do that about once a year just so I don't hear that freaky sound again.

"The Tell-Tale Sub" by Edgar Allan Poe.

wrong Cat, my 350v3's do have the auto circuitry.

Yeah, I'm learning it seems to depend on the age of the unit with different amps.

I leave my P'digm DSP3400 on, it has the auto on/off feature when it detects input and will shut off after several minutes with no input.

I turn my amps off. But, thats mainly because idling each uses between 175-210 watts each.. x3... So, thats 600watts of power consumption just to idle the amps... I'm not willing to pay "that" much in electricity when i'm not using them.....

Have never turned any subs or solid state amps I've ever owned. The triggers turn on the Outlaw, twin 350's and ep600.

I, too, leave my EP500 in auto, triggered by the pre-pro, which although it is turned off an on by the remote (rather than the switch on the front panel) runs hotter in stand-by than any other component in the system and hotter than the amps after a 3 hour movie. The EP500 panel gets just over room temp in standby - have not checked after a good exercise regimen.